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Fall-Winter 2001 Newsletter
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St. Helena native Mike Thompson represents
 By Kathie FowlerED. NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series profiling noteworthy people from the Napa Valley. It was written before the terrorist attacks on September 11th and, sadly, describes what now feels like a bygone era. The article concludes with excerpts from a September 23rd editorial by Mike Thompson that ap-peared in newspapers throughout his district. California's First Congressional District—encompassing Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Napa, and parts of Solano and Sonoma counties—is under the watch of Democratic Congressman Mike Thompson, who routinely travels its length and breadth meeting the citizens he has been mandated to represent. According to Brad Onorato, Thompson's District Representative for Napa and Lake Counties, Mike began his congressional summer break on August 3rd when he arrived at the San Francisco Airport at 4:00 a.m. "He hit the ground running," Brad reports. "By 7:00 a.m. he was on the road, and he hasn't slowed down since. He's put 4000 miles on his car in the last three weeks." This seemingly inexhaustible energy goes far in explaining Thompson's political successes. In 1990, in his first run for political office, he beat State Senator Jim Nielsen—who at the time was Republican leader of the Senate and had been in office for 12 years—in a race that pitted Thompson's $558,000 campaign treasury against Nielsen's million. No one expected him to win. Onorato attributes the victory to a commitment made to the voters during the campaign that Thompson would pay personal attention to their needs, no matter how small. This was not an idle promise. Thompson's great strength—and the reason for his staff's intense loyalty to him (the turn-over rate is virtually non-existent)—is the attention he pays to the smallest detail, whether on a constituent, city or state level. Example: This summer a female resident of the Yountville Veterans' Home asked to speak with Thomp-son. She related to him an incident that had taken place at a bus stop on the Vets' Home grounds where a man had behaved inappropriately to her. She did not feel the authorities were taking her complaint seriously. Thomp- son called the Veterans' Home Administrator to discuss the situation, after which the following actions were taken:
Example: In 1999, Mike co-founded the Congressional Wine Caucus with Republican Congressman George Radano-vich, a winery owner from Mariposa, California. Their mission was to broaden the constituency for wine issues within Congress, and to date they have attracted 166 members from 45 states. "My goal is to have all 50 states represented by the end of the year," Mike confides. So far, $15 million in an agricultural appropriations bill has been set aside to combat the spread of Pierce's Disease and the Glassy Winged Sharpshoot-er, which has devastated thousands of vineyard acres in Southern California, and whose migration northward must be halted. Today, I accompany Mike to a luncheon hosted by the Calistoga Rotary, where he is the guest speaker. I meet him at his St. Helena home—the same one in which he grew up and, along with wife Jan, reared his two sons—and on the drive to Calistoga he speaks with great affection of both kids. Chris, a fire fighter who lives in Chico with his wife and two daughters, has just graduated from the fire academy at Butte College. Jon, who interned at Joseph Phelps Vineyards for several summers, is married with two children and has just become a Deputy Sheriff in Calaveras County. At the Rotary luncheon, Mike is relaxed and approachable. He is peppered with questions about his constituency. "I get 300-400 letters or e-mails a day," he explains, "and I read them all. The volume has definitely gone up with the advent of e-mail. A lot of form letters come through where someone has gone to a web site and clicked on a box which automatically sends me a letter." "In general though my district has a can-do, entrepreneurial spirit that is constantly energizing, even though on a national level it has been terribly disadvantaged by the seniority system in Congress. I am the 9th member representing this district in my lifetime . . ." When he goes up to the podium for his formal speech, an interesting change takes place. From the easygoing conversational style at the luncheon table, his words become eloquent,impassioned, and he speaks without referring to notes. "These are historic times in Washington," he begins. "A President has been sworn into office after losing the majority vote; a former First Lady is a member of the U.S. Senate; there is a 4-seat margin in the House—the slimmest in history; and in the 107th Senate, it is the first time in history there has been a tie between Demo-crats and Republicans, AND the first time the tie was broken by a Republican becoming an independent, but voting with the Democrats." He speaks of the issues facing him when he returns to Washington: "The health care crisis in the nation is at an absolutely critical state—a nursing shortage is crippling hospitals, the reimbursement system to doctors by HMO's is not equitable; in California hospitals have to be earthquake retrofitted by 2008 at a cost which in many cases will exceed the value of the property . . . the 'Patient's Bill of Rights' should have been passed six years ago . . ." Even the most politically indifferent person would find it difficult to remain impassive in the face of Thompson's enthusiasm for these topics. Add to that his commitment to listening to the concerns of his constituents and his seemingly unlimited devotion of time and energy to the job, and one can only hope that if, as he says, the seniority system is the engine that turns the wheels of Congress, that Thompson will continue to represent our district for many years to come. Kathie Fowler is the editor of Spring Valley Times. |
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